Students across Nashville gathered to demand that Tennessee lawmakers take action on five key demands.

Story Highlights

A year ago Thursday in Parkland, Florida 17 lives were taken inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School by a 19-year old former student armed with an AR-15.

The lives of 14 students and three educators were stolen in a matter of minutes by a young man who should never have had access to a gun.

In the wake of that horrible day, Parkland students came together and demanded that lawmakers do something to address gun violence.

The high schoolers rallied fellow students to the cause, and the March for Our Lives movement was born. In just over a month, students across America took up the call to plan school walkouts and marches across the nation, including a massive march and rally in Washington, D.C on March 24.

Nashville students staged walkouts around the city and thousands marched in the streets of downtown Nashville. The message to lawmakers was simple: We’re sick of seeing our peers gunned down in their schools and communities. Do something to address gun violence or we will vote you out.

Five ways to make a difference

Buy Photo

March For Our Lives protestor, Kat Hitchcock, kneeling, cries as she listening to s speaker during the rally at Public Square Park on Saturday, March 14, 2018, in Nashville Tenn. They are protesting gun violence in schools after 17 people, including students and faculty members, were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in February. Nashville's march was organized by Abby Brafman, a freshman at Vanderbilt University who graduated from the Florida high school.(Photo: Mark Zaleski/For the Tennessean)

A month later on April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine shooting, I, along with fellow Hume-Fogg students and students from MLK high school, organized a rally at Public Square Park. Students across Nashville gathered to demand that Tennessee lawmakers take action on five key demands.

Third, we called for a ban on bump stock devices that convert semi-automatic rifles into machine guns. Although a federal ban on the devices has been rolled out, there are questions about how it will be implemented nationally and at the state level. Our lawmakers need to seek these answers.

Fourth, we called for meaningful child access prevention legislation like MaKayla’s Law that would hold adult gun owners responsible when a child picks up a loaded, unsecured gun and injures or kills him or herself or someone else with it. Tennessee consistently leads the country in the number of unintentional shootings involving kids. Lawmakers should prioritize protecting kids, not irresponsible gun owners.

Fifth, we called for legislation to strengthen dispossession laws. When a person is legally prohibited from possessing guns, often due to a domestic violence conviction, we must do more to ensure that they are actually dispossessing their guns and that anyone taking possession of their guns are held accountable if they return them to the prohibited person. Currently ranked fifth in the nation, Tennessee is consistently one of the top 10 states for women murdered by men, most often with a gun and almost always by a man they know.

Tommy Bugg of Nashville hugs Chloe Eagle, 17 of Knoxville. The two just met as they gathered at the Public Square for March for Our Lives Nashville on Saturday, March 24, 2018. Natalie Allison/ USA Today Network - Tennessee